Live Report - Lucknow Super Giants vs Mumbai Indians, Lucknow

LSG go third and Mumbai are fourth now, with 15 and 14 points respectively. One last match to go for each of them; LSG will play against KKR and Mumbai against SRH. Remember, two teams - RCB (5th) and Punjab Kings (8th) have two games left and are on 12 points each.

For Mumbai: If they win their last game and finish on 16, they will be depending on other results to qualify: they could go through without NRRs coming into play, or they could get embroiled in an NRR battle for the final spot with two other teams. If they lose their last game, though, then qualification hopes will be extremely slim: three teams would already be on 15 or more points, and Mumbai Indians could be fighting for the fourth slot with as many as four other teams and a poor NRR.

For LSG: LSG need to win their last two matches to be assured of qualifying. If they lose their last, they can still qualify without depending on NRRs, if other results fall in place. However, there is also a possibility of four teams - CSK, Mumbai, RCB and Punjab Kings - all finishing on 16 or more points.

Have a look at that over. 11 to need from six. Batters have mowed down much more than that in the last over this IPL and Mohsin had to bowl to Cam Green and Tim David, of all the people. He keeps his nerve, Krunal is screaming at everyone, the fielders don't fluff up. But the biggest job is done by Mohsin who bowls slower ones, accurate length balls, and nails the yorkers at the end of the over to concede just five runs in the over. LSG's star from 2022 is back!

Mohsin gets emotional in the interview after the game. Talks about coming back after a long injury layoff, reveals his father was in the ICU in the hospital and was discharged only yesterday, and he's hoping his father is watching him and dedicates his performance to his father.

Another eventful over and it has drama all the way - a six full of disdain, a no-ball above waist which goes for byes past the keeper, a free hit dot ball, a wide reviewed which isn't overturned, and a last-ball six to make it a 19-run over. Tim David was on strike after all and he's swinging them big!

Mumbai need 11 from 6 now, Green on strike, Mohsin to bowl.

The young brigade in LSG's pace attack is doing it. Another excellent over, this one from 24-year-old Yash Thakur, who nails one yorker after another and even claims the wicket of Vishnu Vinod. Even though that has brought out Cam Green to join Tim David.

Nine from the over. Mumbai need 30 from 12.

Mumbai lose another wicket as Wadhera takes on Mohsin's short ball with a pull towards the longer side of the boundary and holes out. With 47 to win from 23, Mumbai bring in Impact Player Vishnu Vinod ahead of Cameron Green. It's a really good over from Mohsin apart from the six Tim David smokes on the leg side. Eight from it, Mumbai need 39 from 18.

As soon as Bishnoi and Krunal are done, SKY takes on Yash Thakur by going miles across on the off side, tries to scoop him on the leg side but he can only hit the ball into the stumps. By the time SKY is done playing the shot, he has gone so far across from the pitch, he has almost reached Kanpur.

LSG have their tail up, Tim David is the new batter. 53 required from five overs and LSG's bowling options are Mohsin (1-0-13-0), Naveen (2-0-16-0), Yash (3-0-32-1) and Swapnil (1-0-11-0). Naveen will bowl out, Yash will finish as well after that wicket-taking over, but what about the other two? Mohsin one, and we're still left with one. Looks like Stoinis will have to bowl.

LSG fans, take a screenshot. That's as frugal an over one can bowl to Mumbai Indians. Krunal Pandya bowled his last and fired down deliveries on the stumps or just wide and didn't give the batters any time to hit him out. He finishes with 4-0-27-0 and next over Bishnoi bowls his fourth to finish with 4-0-26-2.

Mumbai need 63 from 36, with eight wickets in hand.

Kishan opens up on the back foot for a short ball and gives it a whack on the leg side with a pull but he gets a leading edge, and Naveen-ul-Haq gets under it safely at deep square leg. LSG are fighting back because Mumbai now have two new batters out there: Nehal Wadhera joins SKY. Mumbai need 75 off 53.

Shiva throws another stat at me: Rohit has never been involved in a century opening stand in the IPL. He has opened in 85 innings.

Ravi Bishnoi is the only bowler to have not leaked a boundary. Yet. Brought on after the powerplay, and in his second over, Rohit makes room against Bishnoi and goes down the ground to continue the attack against LSG but he can't clear Deepak Hooda at long-on. Rohit gone for 37 off 25, Mumbai 90 for 1 after 9.4, and one-down is Suryakumar, who faces a stern test to score runs away from home.

From the second ball of the chase - which Kishan dispatched for four - Mumbai have not looked back and raced to 58 for 0 in the powerplay, the best score in that phase on this ground in the IPL.

Kishan was the first to take off when he flicked and pulled a couple of poor balls to the leg-side boundary while Rohit happily watched from the other end. And then Rohit danced down to Yash Thakur on the first ball of the fourth over to pull him for a monstrous six! Since then Rohit has smoked two more sixes, both on the leg side, and Mumbai are off!

Stats guru Shiva Jayaraman chimes in:

Chris Jordan is an experienced bowler at death in T20s, but he’s usually had it rough in the subcontinent, especially at death in the IPL. Among bowlers who’ve bowled at least 25 times in the last-four overs in the IPL, Jordan’s economy of 11.59 was the worst among 70 bowlers.

In an innings where the other bowlers conceded runs at less than 7.5 runs an over, Jordan went for 12.5 an over. This was the fourth time in just 31 IPL matches that Jordan has gone for 50 or more runs, which is easily the worst rate for any bowler to have bowled in 30 or matches in the league.

Jordan has been the most expensive bowler in the innings once too often in the IPL. Overall, Jordan has an economy of 9.52 in the IPL. In the matches Jordan has played, his team has had a combined economy of 8.36. This difference of 1.16 between his economy and team’s economy is the second worst for any bowler to have played 30 matches in the IPL. Only Thisara Perera fares worse than Jordan among 125 such bowlers.

Krunal Pandya looks fine - at least from a distance - so he just bowled the first over, after retiring out when he was batting. Look at his record on this ground before this game:

Amit Mishra has a great record against Rohit and Kishan in the IPL; alas he's not playing today, not even among the impact sub options. So LSG bring in Yash Thakur for Prerak Mankad as the impact sub.

LSG could have very easily finished on 160-odd and thought they could make a match out of it. But after being 123 for 3 in 17 overs, Stoinis kept going down the ground and made the most of Jordan's wayward lines and lengths. He followed that with two sixes off Behrendorff's slower ones in the 19th and finished off the innings with a straight six just over a leaping Tim David at long-off in what was until then an excellent last over from Akash Madhwal.

Stoinis took his time in the innings, didn't take unnecessary risk in the middle overs, and when he got slightly fuller lengths, he cashed in big time. And once he got going, nobody could stop him. Finishes unbeaten on 89 off 47 with eight sixes, his highest IPL score.

If Mumbai lose, there will be questions around whether Rohit could have given at least one of the spinners another over. Jordan had leaked 26 off his first three, and going just by today's observations, both Shokeen (3-0-20-0) and Chawla (3-0-26-1) looked much better than Jordan when they all had one over left each. The spinners bowled just six out of the 20 overs.

Chris Jordan had leaked 26 in his first three, and more than his figures, he wasn't getting his lines and lengths right today. He had bowled two wides earlier while trying some slower ones, and in this 18th over, his last, he doesn't get anything right at all to Stoinis. Short and wide, attempted yorkers turn out to be full tosses, full on the stumps, short down leg - barring the second ball, Stoinis dispatched all of them to the boundary for 24 off the over.

147 for 3 with two overs to go.

Akash Madhwal absolutely nails a yorker from wide of the crease after Stoinis walks across, hits him on the boot, and the umpire has given it out lbw. It looked plumb to the naked eye, but Stoinis consults Pooran and reviews it. Surprise surprise - ball-tracking shows it's tailing in so much that it's going down leg after hitting him on the front shoe. It almost looks like an offbreak, and Stoinis survives. He is on 45 off 35, LSG are 123 for 3 with 18 balls left.

LSG will be eyeing 160 at least, is my guess.

Stoinis, meanwhile, goes downtown and smacks his third six and sixth six of the innings.

LSG are still hovering just above seven an over, and Krunal Pandya has retired hurt for 49 after 16 overs. Not sure what the injury is, but it appears he hurt himself while running a quick one and has walked back with the physio. After getting some attention, he is walking up the stairs so it doesn't look like a big injury. The commentators are meanwhile wondering if he has tactically retired out and not retired hurt.

LSG made two big calls today: leaving out Kyle Mayers for Naveen-ul-Haq and Amit Mishra for Swapnil Singh.

After taking on the spinners, Stoinis and Krunal are hitting a boundary almost every over and have taken the scoring rate above seven an over now. They are 95 for 3 after seven, they are looking fairly comfortable on this slow pitch in their fifty stand, and they'll be looking to bat a few more overs before Pooran comes out and does his thing.

He was on 198 before the this game, and he has taken on the spinners today for two more. First he dances down to Shokeen and mows him over wide long-on, and in the next over (the 9th), he sweeps Chawla over midwicket to land the ball into the stands again.

He's on 17 off 9, LSG 63 for 3 after nine overs.

Krunal Pandya and Quinton de Kock, once upon a time two big players at Mumbai Indians, are now batting together against their former side. Two left-hand batters means Rohit brings on offspinner Hrithik Shokeen for two overs in the powerplay, and he does well to bowl eight dots out of those 12, and concede just nine runs. Jordan also got a second in the powerplay and every other ball he sent down was a slower one, under 120kmh. 35 for 2 after the powerplay.

And hello! Piyush Chawla comes on for the seventh over and strikes first ball! Starts with a googly to de Kock and has him caught behind. LSG in trouble now. Fourth time Piyush Chawla has picked up a wicket on his first ball this season.

Rohit Sharma gives the second over to Chris Jordan today, not Akash Madhwal, and Hooda goes for a big shot for a leading edge. Tim David runs back from mid-off and if his bucket hands can't catch it, nobody can. He got under the ball, but couldn't hold on.

Next over, Behrendorff starts with a slower ball, Hooda is into the shot early and this time it's the simplest of catches to David at mid-on. This one he could have taken with his eyes shut.

Oh, it's two in two for Behrendorff! Prerak Mankad edges a back of length ball right into the keeper's hands. Mumbai appeal for it and even before the umpire can move, Mankad turns around to walk back. The finger then goes up. LSG 12 for 2 and its Krunal Pandya at No. 4 in today's rejigged batting line-up.

After all the talk about the colour pitch, we now know it's a red-soil pitch not black. That must have been the reason Mumbai picked only two spinners, not three, because red soil is known to assist pace and bounce more, compared to the turn offered by the black soil.

The other thing to watch out for is the pitch dimensions: one side of the square is 75m and the other is 61m. Watch out for how the spinners bowl in the middle overs, and the quicks in the death.

The match-ups to keep in mind:

While Stoinis has smashed 125 runs off 52 balls from Chris Jordan without being dismissed yet in all T20s, the fast bowler has fared much better against Quinton de Kock, to dismiss him four times in 33 balls while conceding 45 runs in all T20s.

It's not a straightforward decision on this pitch, and Rohit has decided to bowl. He says they know what to expect and later in the same sentence says, "but I don't know how it's going to play". They make only one change, and surprisingly, play just two spinners. An offspinner comes in for a left-arm spinner, Rohit says at the toss. So it should be Hrithik Shokeen for Kumar Kartikeya. So four seamers and two spinners for Mumbai.

Mumbai Indians XI: R Sharma (capt), I Kishan (wk), C Green, S Yadav, T David, N Wadhera, H Shokeen, A Madhwal, P Chawla, J Behrendorff, C Jordan. Impact sub options: Vishnu Vinod, Ramandeep Singh, Tristan Stubbs, Kumar Kartikeya, Raghav Goyal

Lucknow, meanwhile, have three proper spinners apart from Hooda, and could bring in another as an impact sub, depending on how the first innings goes. Surprisingly, no Amit Mishra in the XI or impact subs, and Kyle Mayers is dropped.

Lucknow Super Giants XI: Q de Kock (wk), M Stoinis, N Pooran, P Mankad, A Badoni, K Pandya (capt), D Hooda, R Bishnoi, Swapnil Singh, Mohsin Khan, Naveen-ul-Haq. Impact sub options: Yash Thakur, K Gowtham, Daniel Sams, Yudhvir, Kyle Mayers